Rick Wakeman

Rick Wakeman
Background information
Birth name	Richard Christopher Wakeman
Born	18 May 1949 (1949-05-18) (age 61) Perivale, London
Genres	Rock, progressive rock, pop, electronica, jazz fusion, classical, Christian
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Keyboard, piano, synthesiser
Years active	1970-present
Labels	A&M, Charisma, President Records, Voiceprint, Griffin, EMI, Music Fusion, Hot Productions, Studio T
Associated acts	Yes, Strawbs, ABWH, David Bowie, Warhorse, Black Sabbath
Website	www.rwcc.com

Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player, composer, songwriter and raconteur. He is known for being the keyboardist for progressive rock band Yes, his solo career, and latterly as a contributor to the BBC Television comedy show Grumpy Old Men.

He had classical piano training and was a pioneer in the use of electronic keyboards and in the use of a rock band in combination with orchestra and choir. He hosts a regular radio show on Planet Rock. He is considered by many to be one of the best rock keyboardists of all time.^[1] Across his solo career, Wakeman has produced over 100 solo albums that have sold more than 50 million copies.^[2]

Early life

Rick Wakeman was born on 18 May 1949 in the west London suburb of Northolt to Cyril Frank and Mildred Helen Wakeman.^[3][4] He attended Wood End Infants School in 1954, followed by Drayton Manor Grammar School in 1959.^[5] He purchased his first electronic keyboard at the age of 12.^[6] In 1968, Wakeman secured a place at the Royal College of Music, where he studied piano, clarinet, orchestration and modern music. He left a year later in favour of session music work.

Music career

Studio work and the Strawbs (1969–1971)

Wakeman became an active session musician. In June 1969, he played Mellotron on David Bowie's single "Space Oddity" for a session fee of £9.^[7] He went on to play piano for Bowie's "Life on Mars?", "Changes" and "Oh! You Pretty Things" in April 1971 and "Absolute Beginners" in 1985. He also worked on the Cat Stevens' hit "Morning Has Broken". In 1971 he acquired an early Minimoog synthesiser, purchasing it at half price from actor Jack Wild who believed that it was defective because it only played one note at a time.^[6][8]

In 1970-1971, Wakeman played with Strawbs, playing on the albums Dragonfly (1970), Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios (1970) and From the Witchwood (1971).

History with Yes

First run (1971–1974)

In 1971, Wakeman joined progressive rock band Yes, replacing keyboardist Tony Kaye. He worked on the group's fourth, fifth and sixth studio albums – Fragile (1971), Close to the Edge (1972), and Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) – respectively. Wakeman, however, felt Tales from Topographic Oceans was thin on substance and did not connect with its themes. He disliked performing the album on tour, feeling the length of the songs prohibited the band from playing their more popular tracks. Following the tour, as the band began work on what would become Relayer (1974), Wakeman felt further alienated from the group. Disenchanted with the direction in which Yes was going, and already into a successful solo career, he left.

Second run (1976–1980)

He rejoined Yes for their 1977 album Going for the One, which especially features him in the song Awaken. He remained until their next album, Tormato, a year later. He is reputed to have given the album its name by throwing a tomato at a showing of the art used for the album's cover.^[9][10]

ABWH and third run (1989–1992)

In 1989, he joined with three fellow ex-Yes members to form Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (a.k.a. ABWH). After ABWH's first album, some of the completed tracks for a planned second album were merged with tracks from an in-progress Yes album to create the album Union. Wakeman, along with the combined members of both bands then joined to form a Yes supergroup (made up of past and present members of Yes) for the subsequent tour in 1991. When the tour ended a year later, Wakeman left again.

Fourth run (1995–1997)

He then returned in 1996 for the Keys to Ascension albums but left before the band could tour.

Fifth run (2002–2008)

In 2002, he rejoined Yes and stayed with the band until their In the Present Tour in 2008.

Solo career (1971–present)

Wakeman began his solo career during his first run with Yes. In early 1972, while on his fifth tour of the United States, he bought four books at an airport bookstall in Richmond, Virginia, among them The Private Life of Henry VIII by Nancy Brysson Morrison.^[11] While reading about Anne Boleyn on the following flight to Chicago, a theme he recorded in November 1971 began to run through his mind.^[12] He often scribbled down pieces of music while travelling, but could not find a theme to put them to. "The six wives theme gave me...the link I needed to give me a reason for putting these pieces of music together", said Wakeman.^[13] In January 1973, Wakeman released his first concept album, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. The album went on to sell over 15 million copies overall.^[14]

Wakeman's next solo album was Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974), his second concept album combining rock with a symphonic orchestra and choir.

In 1975, he released the concept album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which was supported by a live show featuring ice skating theatrical performances accompanied by a large number of musicians (his rock band, an orchestra and two choirs). The show was well received but expensive to produce, consuming much of the income from sales of the album.^[6][15]

Rick Wakeman performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, October 2009, in aid of the PRS (Performing Right Society) for Music Members' Benevolent Fund.

He has written the soundtracks for two films by Ken Russell: Lisztomania (1975), which features vocals from Roger Daltrey and which takes as its starting point the music of Liszt and Wagner; and Crimes of Passion (1984), much of which is built around themes taken from Dvořák's New World Symphony.

As announced on the official Yes website, Rick Wakeman would not be joining Yes on their 40th Anniversary tour; he would instead be replaced by his son Oliver Wakeman (the tour was cancelled because of Jon Anderson's poor health). In 2008, Wakeman toured with a solo show, "Rick Wakeman's Grumpy Old Picture Show", an evening of biography, stories and music.

2009 saw the first complete performance of the "Six Wives" at Hampton Court Palace as part of the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne.

Instruments

Although Wakeman is a noted player of the grand piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, Minimoog and many later models of synthesiser, he is well known as an exponent (for a time) of the Mellotron – an analogue electronic musical instrument that uses a bank of pre-recorded magnetic tape strips, each of which is activated by a separate key on its keyboard and lasts approximately 8 seconds. Wakeman featured playing this instrument, to varying degrees, on the David Bowie track "Space Oddity", the Yes albums Fragile, Close to the Edge and Tales From Topographic Oceans, as well as the solo albums The Six Wives of Henry VIII and White Rock. It proved too unwieldy and unreliable for regular touring, and he eventually doused the last Mellotron that he owned in petrol and set fire to it in a field^[16]. Undeterred, he worked with David Biro to develop the Birotron, which used the then popular 8-track cassette format rather than tape strips. Because of the advent of digital keyboards at that time, and also because the cassette tape format could not reproduce the attack and decay of musical notes (which the tape strips of the Mellotron could reproduce), the Birotron was never a commercial or technical success. Only 35 Birotrons were produced, and Wakeman eventually threw his across the stage after it broke down mid-concert, an action he now regrets as there are only six remaining examples.^[16]

Studio appearances

Wakeman has performed as a guest or session musician for artists such as:

• Alice Cooper
• John Williams
• Brotherhood of Man
• Elton John
• Lou Reed
• David Bowie (notably mellotron on 'Space Oddity', piano on 'Life On Mars' and 'Changes')
• Cat Stevens (including piano on Stevens' hit cover of the hymn "Morning Has Broken")
• Elkie Brooks (guest musician on her DVD Elkie Brooks: Live With Friends)
• T. Rex
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Black Sabbath (playing keyboards on 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath)^[17]
• Brian May
• Vivian Stanshall (keyboard on Teddy Boys Don't Knit)
• Denny Laine
• Al Stewart

Personal life and non-musical career

Rick Wakeman at Western Springs Auckland New Zealand 1976

Wakeman had three heart attacks in his twenties.^[9] The first of them occurred just after he first left Yes in early 1974, during the release of Journey to the Centre of the Earth. He married former Page Three model Nina Carter, although they have since divorced. He has had a renewal of his Christian faith,^[18] which began around the time of their marriage.^[19]

A passionate football fan, Wakeman has supported Brentford F.C. since he was a child, and later on he also became a director of the West London club. After a disagreement with the board, he moved on to Manchester City F.C. but never stopped loving the Bees. He was involved in the ownership of the American soccer club Philadelphia Fury in the late '70s, along with other rock celebrities such as Peter Frampton and Paul Simon.

He is a strong supporter of the UK's Conservative Party, and performed a concert in September 2004 for the benefit of the party. The Arthur section of his King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table suite has been used as the theme tune to the BBC's Election Night Coverage since 1979 (with the exception of 2001 and 2010). Wakeman's album Fields of Green '97 featured the track "Election '97/Arthur", which was used by the BBC for their coverage of the 1997 General Election. The music was further revamped for the BBC's 2005 Election Night coverage.

Wakeman can be seen as a contributor on BBC Two's series, Grumpy Old Men. He has also appeared in a number of episodes of Countdown; about twenty per year, according to Wakeman. He currently (2008) presents a weekly Saturday morning programme, "Rick's Place", on Planet Rock. He has also appeared on the satirical panel show Have I Got News For You as a guest.

Wakeman appeared as himself in "Journey to the Centre of Rick Wakeman", the last episode of season two of Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music, a BBC Radio 4 comedy programme. The episode detailed a fictional war between England and Wales in 2009 which only Wakeman could stop. Wakeman provided piano for Benn's 2008 single "Sing Like an Angel", which was released on iTunes.

In December 2006, Wakeman was the guest host for an episode of The Personality Test, a BBC Radio 4 programme where the panel stay the same and the host changes each week. The questions set in the programme are all about the host. He set a challenge for a new concept album idea, and the comedian Will Smith suggested "Spiders and Other Invertebrates". Rick said he liked that idea so much, he would include a track of his next album called "Spiders and Other Invertebrates", and would include a sleeve credit to Smith. Smith responded by saying that Rick had "...just made my life".^[20]

Wakeman has been president of the show business charity The Heritage Foundation (formerly Comic Heritage). The charity erects blue plaques on the homes and/or work-places of late entertainers and sportspeople. He is also Honorary President of the Classic Rock Society, a UK-based organisation helping to promote classic and progressive rock. In October 2007, Wakeman commenced a new tour 'Rick Wakeman's Grumpy Old Picture Show', where he accompanies video performers such as Gordon Giltrap and the English Rock Ensemble (Ashley Holt, Lee Pomeroy, Dave Colquhoun and Tony Fernandez).

He also appeared on Top Gear and set a race track lap time of 1'55.26.

In 2009, Wakeman became a Patron of Tech Music Schools.

Discography

See also

• Oliver Wakeman
• Adam Wakeman
• Yes
• Strawbs

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Wooding, Dan (1978). Rick Wakeman: The Caped Crusader. Granada Publishing Limited. ISBN 0 586 04853 7. 

Publications

• Scivales, Riccardo. Keyboardist Rick Wakeman and Yes's 'South Side', "Piano Today" (USA), Vol. 26/No. 1, Winter 2006, pp. 24–25 and 51.
• Scivales Riccardo. Rick Wakeman's 'Merlin The Magician', "Piano Today" (USA), Vol. 28/No. 1, Winter 2008, pp. 30–31.
• Wakeman, Rick. Say Yes!, Hodder & Stoughton Religious, (4 May 1995) ISBN 10 0340621516 ISBN 13 978 0340621516.
• Wakeman, Rick. Grumpy Old Rockstar: and Other Wondrous Stories, Preface Publishing, (21 Aug 2008) ISBN 10 1848090048 ISBN 13 978 1848090040.

External links

• Rick Wakeman's Communication Centre
• Rick Wakeman's Official Press Photos
• Rick Wakeman at the Internet Movie Database
• 1983 audio interview with Trevor Rabin, Alan White, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman
• Interview with Rick at Premier.tv
• Rick Wakemans Video vault
• Rick Wakeman's Italian Site
• Rick in his local community
• 2009 Rick Wakeman Interview